The Woes of a Teenage Oracle
by Seiina13
Summary: Rachel thought she could live a normal life at Clarion Ladies' Academy? Not so much.
1. Tea Ceremonies and Gossip

**Hey, look! It's a new fanfiction! How strange…**

**Anyway, this is my first ff for Percy Jackson. Who's just weird. Rachel's much cooler. Which is why this story's about her and not him. **

**It takes place in Clarion Ladies' Academy. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Rachel. Human ownership is wrong. Nor do I own Percy Jackson. See above reason. I don't own CLA, or various other things in this story, but I **_**do **_**own Yasra. She's mine. So's her dad. **

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Japanese tea ceremony. Why? Zeus knows. I kneeled, my body twisted and bent at a thousand awkward angles. I was sheathed in some sort of expensively-woven flowered kimono. This was ridiculous. I _could _be out training to save the world. But _nooooo. _I had to be suck here in this _stupid_ finishing school because I'd needed to get to New York last summer. Stupid deal. But probably, ok, definitely worth it…

"Ow!" I was startled out of my mind-rant with a wave of scalding jasmine tea pouring over my subtly-uncovered wrist. Stupid idea anyway. Wrists, whatever the olden-days Japanese people said, were _not_ sexy.

The teacher glided over to me. "Miss Dare," she scolded me, "You must learn to keep your wrist steady.

I managed a half-hearted, "Yes, miss." As if I cared at all.

She was not convinced. "Miss Dare, really. You cannot hope to marry well if you cannot master these simple skills."

Marriage. Ha! If only she knew. My mouth opened of its own accord. Oh _no_. I felt the strength of thousands of oracles building up behind me and tried to close it but, when the voice came out, it was my own; harsh and cold, maybe, but my own. And not in triplicate. "I shall never marry." I intoned, "I belong solely to my lord Apollo." Damn it. I still said too much.

Setting my teapot down quickly, I closed my eyes, shutting out the stares. I felt the mist swirling around me and raised one hand.

"You heard not the Oracle speak." My voice was calm and deep. I snapped and opened my eyes to watch the girls in my class, and Miss Cale, be surrounded by thick, snakelike tendrils of Mist. Then it evaporated, and my class turned back to their task of pouring tea.

Sighing, I waited out the last five minutes without too many catastrophes. I was momentarily relived of my kimono, only to be replaced with the school uniform—white starched blouse, shin-length grey pleated skirt, monogrammed maroon sweater. My red curls were knotted and pinned on top of my head, and loose curls framed my face, which bounced distractingly in my peripheral vision as I walked.

Oh. Did I mention that this was all done by maids? Please. I don't know if this was the case with any other of the students at this godsforsaken school, but _I_ had learned to dress myself a loooong time ago. Gods.

My path was intercepted by a bouncing ball of flushed cheeks and blond ringlets. My best friend (here, anyway), Celeste grabbed my arm and pulled me along to our next class—the ancient world. As usual, her mouth was going non-stop.

"Ohmigod, Rachel," she gushed, "there's-a-new-AW-teacher-named-Mr.-Sun. Millennium-saw-him-this-morning-and- is-telling-absolutely-_everyone_-how-gorgeous-he-is!" She paused for breath, giving me a chance to roll my eyes. "Unexcited as usual, Rach. Why don't you like guys anymore? We've been in the same class since second grade. You used to be all over them."

"_I've_ matured." I said, laughing at her. Almighty Zeus, if only she knew how much.

I barely had had time to finish my two words before Celeste was off again. "I wonder where he's from. Mr. Sun…" She turned to me. "What do you think, Rach?" She didn't wait for me to answer, just said brightly, "Well, I guess we'll knew in about 30 seconds."

We joined the crowd of girls filing into the classroom and took our usual seats in the middle row and waited for the so-called "beautiful" Mr. Sun. I, however, had seen the beauty of the gods. Literally. So I wasn't so easily impressed. Hence my sudden non-interest in guys—not that I could explain that to my friend. Oh. There was also the whole "Destined to remain a maiden until death" thing. Yeah.

Then the door clicked open and the new Ancient World teacher walked in. Mr. Sun.

And I gasped along with everyone else.

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**Ok, there it is. I FINALLY typed it up. Part of it, anyways.**

**Rachel Rules.**

**Please Review! It makes me happy.**

**Anyone who guesses who the new teacher is gets a cookie:)**

**-Seiina**


	2. A New Teacher and Many Cookies

**Hello, I'm back, and on a review high. I LOVE YOU ALL! YOU MAKE ME VERY HAPPY! Ahem. Well, on with the story then.**

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Tall, Smiling. Perfect teeth, sparkling green eyes fleck with gold. Long lashes, long wavy, spun-gold hair. Tan, perfectly chiseled face like the marble statue of Greek god.

Now about that Greek statue thing… I knew this face. I dreamed about it a lot, for one; he was a busy man, and I'd only ever seen him a few tines and real life. Point is, he was _not_ the type to masquerade as an Ancient World teacher. Not unless there was an issue. A big issue. _Really _big one. Great.

No eyes left that familiar body as Mr. _Sun_ walked up to his desk, picked up a clip board and began calling off names. When he finished, my name was called again.

"Miss Dare," his musical voice called out, "please come up here."

Numbly, I started forward, expecting to receive some cryptic warning. Instead, I got the attendance sheet pushed into my hands. "Be a dear and bring this down for me," he smiled again, then added more softly, "And Rachel? Come in here during lunch. I need to talk to you."

I nodded dumbly, then managed a muttered, "Yes, My Lord."

"Good." His voice was normal again, "While you're gone, Ill get to know the class a bit."

Taking the sheet to the office didn't take long—it was only about fifty meters down the hallway from our room. By the time I returned to the room and slipped back into my seat, Celeste was just finishing her general life-summary.

The teacher turned to me, "And you, Rachel Dare? What do you have to tell about yourself?"

I racked my brains for something to say. "Um, I'm Rachel. I'm an artist. I believe in self-expression and I hate the Japanese tea ceremony Wrists aren't sexy at all. I have really good eyesight, and I love Greek Mythology."

He smiled again, reminding me somewhat of Gilderoy Lockhart, "How lovely." He turned a fraction of a degree to face the girl next to me, "And you, Yasra?"

Yasra was weird. An oddball. I could tell that she didn't like it much here and that she was new—like me. Still though, she distanced herself from everybody else purposely—as in no friends. At all. She was a small, nervous looking brunette with funny grey eyes. At first I wondered if she was a daughter of Athena, but there's a definite no on that one. She doesn't act like one of them at all. She spends all her time in the gardens or at the archery range. She's the top of all her classes. And she's my roommate, along with Celeste.

She looked uncomfortable with the attention. "Um," she stuttered, "there's really not much to know…"

He seemed to accept that, and moved on.

The class continued like that for ten more minutes until Amy finished describing herself. Then he walked up to the blackboard and spoke again, "My name is Mr. Sun, you new Ancient Worlds teacher. The subject in which I specialize is Ancient Greece so that is what I'll be teaching you."

There was silence as the twenty girls around me stared. Finally Sarah, a tall, bold girl sitting in the back raised her trembling hand.

"Um, sir?" She started tentatively, "What did you just say?"

This, for some reason, annoyed me to no end. No girl should deny a GOD her attention in class. I turned in my seat to glare at her. "Weren't you listening?" I snapped, "He said his name was Mr. Sun—"

Yasra cut me off, continuing, "—He specializes in Ancient Greece, so that's what he'll be teaching us." She looked shocked to hear her own voice, especially with so much emotion behind it, and turned back to the front, sliding down somewhat in her seat.

Mr. "Sun" clapped his hands, grinning. "Well, well." he laughed. "it would seem that we have two girls in this class who are already fluent in Ancient Geek." My head snapped up. What? "They'll have it easy, for that is the main language in which this course will be taught. The rest of you will have a _lot_ of catch-up work to do. Good luck with that. If you will not put in the extra work, drop the class."

The bell rang then, and the sound of scraping chairs filled the hall as girls filed out of their rooms for lunch.

"Ohmigod, Rach." Celeste said excitedly, "Why didn't you tell me you spoke Ancient Greek?"

Because I didn't know, maybe? I shrugged. "Dunno. You go to lunch, Celeste, I have something I have to do. Save me a seat."

"Whatever," She huffed, clearly hurt.

I turned back to into the classroom immediately. "Apollo," I demanded, "What on Olympus or in Hades are you doing here?"

He shrugged. "I was bored." he answered, and this time I recognized his speech as Greek. "And they needed someone to come down here and take a peek around. Someone's been messing with the mist, BIG time. I'd kind of hoped it was you…" he trailed off, looking at me hopefully.

I shook my head, "Not me, sorry. But I'll keep an eye out…Speaking of which, what do you think of Yasra? Demigod?

"Not a monster anyway." Then he started with the small talk. Empty, meaningless chatter that kept me going on the woes of a teenage oracle until the bell rang.

The sun god watched me quietly while I scrambled for my books. "What do you have next, Rachel?"

"Archery," I said, making a face.

He cringed. "Hello, God of Archery speaking here. Why the face?"

"Let's just say that I've finally stopped impaling my classmates."

"Ouch." He said, "Well, God (meaning me) forbid that Apollo's own Delphi should go without bow-skill." He took my hand, bit his thumb, and smeared a drop of the golden Ichor across my right palm. It shaped itself to form a shimmering golden sun "May her hand guide an arrow true." He intoned, and released me. I literally felt the muscles in my arm strengthen.

"Go" He said then. I nodded and rushed from the room.

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**Thus ends the second chapter.**

**Thankyou to all my reviewers! You make my day much happier, especially with how they seem to be dragging of late…**

**AnnaercyPercabethforeva: My, what a strange name you have. A pain to type. Oh well. You get a cookie. Actually, you get two, because you guessed right FIRST! Congrats. But he came mostly 'cause he was bored. .**

**StarofCalamity: Glad you like. You still like? And yes, a cookie to you too.**

**The-All-Mighty: It's good to have someone who will review in all caps….But no cookie for you. Sorry.**

**Andalee: You are correct. Happy? Good. Take one cookie. NO MORE, NO LESS. OR YOU WILL BE PPPPUUUUNNNNIIISSSHHHHEEEEDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!**

**Imoratachi: Good someone thinks its easy. I showed the story to my family and friends (who have read the books) and they couldn't guess for THEIR LIVES! Sad, right? (Oh yes, you can take a cookie.)**

**Random Person: Was this longer than the first one? I can't tell. Take a cookie.**

**Jake the Drake: Your second guess was the right one. You only get half a cookie. Sorry.**

**Bookwormyperosn: I can't be bothered to write out your penname properly. Sorry. You spelled this wrong. But I forgive you. Thanks. Do you like Celeste? I don't. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with her yet.**

**Artemis' Lieutenant: LAZYNESS IS BAD. And no cookie. But I'm glad you liked it!**

**THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU again for reviewing, I love you all. And almost everyone got a cookie. Good job. I think maybe I should have twisted it and made it, like, a movie star or something…**

**-Seiina**


	3. Gifts and Myths

**Have I already given my rant on how you actually have **_**less **_**time to do stuff you like during the summer. Oh well. It's almost over anyways…**

**Disclaimer: I. DON'T. OWN. PERCY JACKSON. Seriously. If I did, do you think I'd be sitting in my room typing fanfiction? Notta chance.**

**Anyways, this chapter is for Kiliro, since she finally got me typing again (you go, girl!)**

**----**

"God, Rach, where were you?!" Celeste was angry. "I had to eat all by myself, looking like the _total_ biggest dork in the world."

"Sorry," I muttered, taking a huge bite of banana sandwich and began to change into my sports clothes.

"Again I say, 'whatever' Rach."

"It wasn't my fault, Celeste," I argued, "Ap-Mr. Sun kept me. He wanted to know where I'd learned ancient Greek," I lied smoothly.

"Which reminds me, where _did_ you?"

"Huh"

"Learn ancient Greek, dolt."

"Oh. Um, at CTY."

"Come again?"

I sighed. This girl spent _no_ time in the real world. "CTY," I explained, "Center for Talented Youth. It's like a summer camp for nerds. But it's really fun. You take your SATs, and, if you do well, you can take a three-week cram course at this camp"

She gaped at me. "You took the _SATs_ to _try out_ for a _summer school_? _VOULENTARILY_!?

The bell rang. "Never mind," I muttered, pulling on my archery gloves and snapping my overly long red curls into a ponytail. Really. I think it's been growing faster since I became a mystic oracle. Come to think of it, all the paintings of my predecessors have girls with hair down to their, like, feet. Great.

I turned to head out, but Celeste's voice rang out behind me, "Your _bow_, Rach."

Right. Archery class, or so I've heard, goes better if you have a bow. The school provided arrows, but students had to have their own bows. Mine was pretty basic. Definitely not the nicest bow out there, but I figured I didn't need anything fancy. I sucked at archery anyways. I looked down at my partially-covered palm, where the Ichor-sun still glistened. But maybe, now, I'd be wanting a new one.

"Ohmigod, Rachel!" Celeste's voice snapped me back to reality. (She's really good at that, isn't she?) She was standing with her back to me, staring into my sports locker.

"What?" I asked, cautious.

She spun around, her long blond ponytail almost striking me across the face, "This, stupid." She stood aside so I could see.

It was beautiful. A light, springy birch bow, inlaid with golden patterns. There were small golden suns; rose-cold cows; a girl, laden with treasures, perched on a tripod balanced over a chasm; a young man holding a lyre. At the bottom, there was an inscription in Ancient Greek. "Rachel, Pythia, Oracle of Apollo at Delphi," Along with this blessing:

_Pythia renowned_

_May her words always prove true_

_Speaker for the gods_

I pulled it out and was shocked by its height—it was as tall as I was, almost. The string, a golden spun cord, melded no the tips, which were covered in more golden etchings. I plucked it lightly and it made the musical twanging sound of a lyre.

I clanked back at the locker—there was a quiver too—a thick, hollowed branch, engraved with the same golden designs as my bow.

I pulled an arrow out—it was sleek and beautiful—as straight an arrow as ever existed. If I shot one of these I would never be able to go back to the comparatively warped, flawed school arrows. Well, so be it. At least I wouldn't hurt anybody with their celestial bronze tips…

Whoah, Rach, where'd you get those?" Celeste's pissed-ness evaporated as she leaned over my shoulder to se.

"Um…" I struggled for an explanation, "Um, it's a gift." I said, lamely.

"Duh, from who?"

"From whom" I corrected automatically, "And from a guy…friend"

"Boyfriend," she sang excitedly, "He's courting you, isn't he?"

I snored. "Not hardly. He looks young, but he's really absolutely _ancient_." Truth. "He's just a friend. Really."

"Boring," she huffed, "And a pity. He must be really rich."

"Yeah," I agreed, "Like, a god."

She sighed wistfully, "Young-for-his-age, handsome, rich, generous…"

"I never said he was handsome."

"Well, isn't he?"

"Ah…yeah."

"Ha!" she was triumphant.

"But he gets really jealous, like everybody in his family," I added, desperate to find a fault, "Once, his sister started, um, dating someone. Which she had promised before never to do. But she really liked the guy. So she ended up having sex with him on her brother's…bed." I swear I could feel eyes on the back of my neck.

"Anywho, he got super mad/jealous, and tricked her into shooting her ah, boyfriend."

"No way."

"Yes way. It happened. It was ages ago, though. They made up."

"He killed her boyfriend and they made UP?"

"Well, yeah. It took time though."

"C'mon. A couple hundred years maybe, but there are only so many years in a human life."

I shrugged. Who said there were human? "Well they did. Let's go now—we're already late."

**-----**

**Lingusticsrock: Hey, that's a good idea… but probably not going to happen. My imagination isn't **_**that**_** twisted. Quite. And congrats on your cookie. Was it yummy?**

**Star-Gazing-In-LA: I like LA…My grandparents live there. Anywho, thanks? Wow, I'm kinda overwhelmed. That is officially the most enthusiastic review I have EVER had. So thanks. You're awesome.**

**Bookworm: Thanks… Do I know you?**

**Lf5: well gee thanks. (sarcasm, by the way)**

**Fire-chan: WRONG! Haha. And nope! But I already told you who she really is, didn't I? BTW, you inspired the CTY thing, incase you couldn't guess.**

**Madame J. Pantemercy: So, didya like it? Please say yes.**

**Rex-Impetus: Well that problem's solved now, isn't it. I'm glad you liked it. Still with me?**

**Kiliro: Well, those are the only things I get high off. LIFE MAN!!! Muahahahaha….What was that about pickiness?**

**Someone who's reviewing: Well, thanks for reviewing. That's a nice idea, since I don't think Rachel's real Dad spends much time in that area…Poor Rach…**

**Well, thankee very much to all my reviewers, as usual, I love you, and since I'm just back from France, bisoux. Sp? Clara-wa…help.**

**Be back later,**

**-Seiina**


	4. Plans and Visits

**Yeah, it's short. I know. Sorry. **

**Don't own anything. Just the clothes on my back *sobs***

**Enjoy.**

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Archery absolutely made my day. Some raisin squirt lime yellow. It had always been my worst class—in the third grade, when we started, they had actually moved my target farther away from the others', so that I would be less likely to hurt someone.

Yeah.

But here I was today, gifted by Apollo himself, god of the fiery arrows. My shafts drove themselves, one by one, into _my_ bullseye. (not someone else's—that has happened)

It wasn't long before my new finesse of the bow caught the attention of my pears. And my teacher. "Why, Miss Dare!" she exclaimed, hurrying over to me, "Have you been practicing?"

"Yeah," I lied, cool and casual. Go me, "I figured I should—I mean, I was soooo bad before…"

She nodded, "You are an example to us all." She glanced down, "Might I be so bold as to inquire to where you acquired such a beautiful bow as the one which your hands now grasp?"

Man, what a waste of breath. She could just say, "Where did you get it?" See? Short and sweet. "It was a gift, Miss."

"How lovely. Alright ladies, back to work!" she clapped her gloved hands and turned back to me. "Miss Dare, why don't you go practice with Miss Oakefille?"

I glanced over to where Yasra was standing alone in her archery costume, sending arrow after arrow into her target, "Um, can I stay here for a while? Maybe I'll join her on Monday."

She smiled warmly at her new star pupil. Sorry, me, "Of course." Then she left me to go correct someone else's less-than-perfect form.

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"Well, we're just full of surprises today, now, aren't we?" Joy. Celeste was mad again.

"Sorry." I kept my back to her, slowly stripping off my archery gear before the maids could arrive to do it for me.

"Can't you explain yourself better than that?" she snapped.

Now I was getting annoyed. Could this girl not give it a rest? Couldn't she see that I was just as shocked as she?

"Well?"

I guess not.

"I guess it was the new bow." I hazarded, "I mean, my old one really did suck."

She wasn't satisfied, "You know what I think, Rachel Elisabeth Dare? I think you were always good at archery. I think you just pretended to be bad so that you could spring this on us and get all the attention. Actually. I bet you're awesome at the tea ceremony too. Aren't you? You are. Don't bother to deny it now, you liar."

Woah. "Celeste, you've known me, like, forever. I don't do that. And I have _scars _on my arms from the burns I've suffered practicing that ceremony. I'm no masochist."

"If you say so," she said, obviously disbelieving, "Then you should be fine saying all this to a _PSYCHIC!_"

"A psychic." I should have known that this was leading up to something.

She grinned. "Yes, a psychic. There's a girl, a year older than us, who can see the future. Bet she could tell us who's telling the truth."

"I don't believe in fortune tellers or psychics." I half-lied.

"Don't be stupid." She insisted. "I've seen your bookshelf. You're all into that mythology crap. For all you know, she could be the oracle of deldi reincarnated or something."

"Delphi," I corrected through gritted teeth. "And if you think mythology is such crap, why on earth are you taking the class?" As for the Delphi thing, it was of course, impossible. But I didn't mention that. To keep things simple.

"The teacher's hot." She stated. Of course. How obvious. What a wonderful way to go through life. Ignore your interests and go after the guys. Spoiled rich kids + Teenage girls: Really, not a great idea.

"Fine. I'll go with you. I've _always_ wanted to have my fortune told," I muttered sarcastically.

She grinned, showing overly-white teeth. "Great. We'll leave at 11:30 tonight."

"We're going after lights out?" Why did I agree to this?"

She rolled her eyes. "Duh. Two periods left, right? What do you have next?"

"Free."

She stuck her tongue out at me, "Luck. I've got physics."

And I was alone. Hm. I slid down onto the floor, preparing to waste a period sitting by my locker.

A psychic? Unlikely. Assuming she was human. If she wasn't, of course, then there were, like, a zillion more possibilities. She could be the one playing with the mist…

My feet were starting to fall asleep, so I got up and began wandering back to my dorm. May as well change out my books now, anyway.

Only to find a god sitting on my bed. Looking pissed. Great.

/End ch 4

**Ok, I'm done. Reviews appreciated blah blah blah…**

**I'm so tired.**

**Bleh. **

**Sorry, I'm done now.**

**-Seiina**


	5. IM's and Psychics

**Hi. Here it is.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Percy Jackson, I would be rich. **

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"Myth." His voice was a thousand times louder and deeper than any human sound system could ever achieve. It forced me to my knees easily.

"M-my Lord?" I asked shakily.

"Sorry, Rach. Just needed to get that out. But really. Separate Myth from History. Seriously. If I were my brother, you would be a puddle of radioactive goo right now. But I like you too much for that." He was smiling again, "That story you told your friend, abut Artemis and Orion? Pure myth."

"Oh." Oops.

He handed me a textbook. "This is the new text-book for your Ancient Studies class." I glanced down at the cover. _History of the Gods_. It looked like it might crumble if I touched it wrong. "Be careful with that," he told me, "it's a first edition."

I gawked and flipped (carefully) to the inside cover. The normal table of users was there:

_Name Year Used_

_Pallas Athena _

_Phoebus Apollo Who in Hades cares?_

_Hermes Theseus' Rule_

_Persephone Winter_

_Cassandra Priam's Rule_

_Christopher Columbus 1493_

_Barack Obama 1997_

_Rachel Elizabeth Dare 2010_

He'd already written my name down. In ancient Greek. Could my life get more surreal?

Probably not.

"Get some rest, Rachel," he told me, "I hear you're going out tonight."

I nodded again and he vanished, leaving behind a pouch of gold drachmae and a faint smell of buttercups.

Weird.

I took one of the coins into the bathroom and turned on the shower to the mistiest setting possible. I tossed the coin in and it vanished as I murmured my offering. Good.

"Percy Jackson, Camp Half-Blood," I requested politely. The spray shimmered and twisted. Percy was facing away from me, engaged in heavy combat with a son of…Ares, by the looks of it.

"Percy," I called. He didn't hear. "Percy. Percy, Percy, Percy…" I gulped, "PERSEUS JACKSON GET YOUR BUTT OVER HERE AND TALK TO ME!"

Still no response.

Annabeth's head popped into view, grinning. "Hi Rachel!" How's the life of the princess-slash-messenger-of-the-gods?" she sobered up into a more pitying gaze.

"Just peachy," I responded sarcastically, "and have you finally decided to be nice to me now that you've secured the guy?"

"Yeah," she confirmed, "now watch this." She turned to the side and called, softly, "Percy."

There was a clatter and the one-and-only (?) son of Poseidon rushed over to give her a kiss. I made a retching noise and he looked up, flushed. "Oh, hey Rach. How's it going up there in your would of princess-slash-messenger-of-the-gods?"

I rolled my eyes. They even _thought_ the same. "Nothing much. I just wanted to say hi," I stopped, hearing Celeste come over in to our room. I lowered my voice, "And fill you in."

They raised their eyebrows simultaneously.

"Apollo is my teacher, one of my classmates in an unidentified non-human thing, and my bitchy best friend is trying to make me see a psychic."

"Rach?" Celeste was hammering on the door, "If you're not using the bathroom, then I'm coming in."

"!" I cut the water.

She came in. "Why were you running the shower?"

I stared at her, "I was contacting my secret best friends who are part god warriors by ancient magical means."

She crossed her arms, glaring, "Oh. Were there rainbows involved?" she asked sarcastically.

"Actually, yes."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, don't tell me."

"Oh, but I did."

"Whatever." I swear that was her favorite word. "I need the bathroom."

I got up, "Leaving."

-----

I finished my homework pretty quickly. (for some reason they don't give much here.) and went to bed.

Mistake.

I'd forgotten about a Pythia's dreams.

-----

"Raaaaaaaaaaaaachel…" I opened my eyes slowly to find Celeste, shaking me.

"Wattimeiz't?" I muttered. She rolled her eyes. "Time. Get dressed. She threw back my duvet. "Up!"

She was throwing clothes at me—her clothes. Like, flowing skirts and lacy, frilly underthings. I made a face, grabbing some beat-up, paint-splattered jeans and a t-shirt.

She looked at me in disgust, "I'm gong to have to beat that fashion sense (or lack thereof) out of you, you know."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." I just wanted to get this over with.

Only when we were safely (?) out the window and on the pristine lawn did she make her presence known, "Just so you know, I'm coming with you." Yasra tapped both of us on the shoulder.

Celeste shrieked, spinning around, "What are you doing here?"

"Pay attention," she snapped back, "I'm coming with you.

"You can't come."

"And why, pray tell, not?"

"Of course she can, Celeste, don't be a jerk." I interrupted.

"But she's _so _uncool!" Celeste protested, whining just a bit.

I ignored her, turning back to Yasra, and consciously switching to Greek, "You are welcome to come with us." (Have I mentioned yet how much I _love_ being fluent at a language with out all the vocab and grammar work? It's awesome. Just so you know.)

She smiled, looking terribly familiar. A little like Apollo, actually, but not quite. She was…I don't know, _off_. "Thank you."

"You guys are so annoying," Celeste cut in, " It is sooo rude to speak in Greek when I'm here."

"Sorry," I said, on automatic, "So, where is this place, anyways?"

"You'll see."

We walked in silence for a minute, and then my curiosity got the better of me, "excuse us for a moment," I told her, then grabbed Yasra's arm and pulled her aside, reverting to greek once I realized that Celeste's head was at a perfect angle for eavesdropping.

"I am going to ask you a question. Please do not be offended. If you think I'm crazy, then you can just go with that."

She nodded, "Shoot."

"Are you human?"

She laughed. Again—a familiar sound, "No. You?"

"I shook my head. "No, well yes. Mostly, but for all intents and purposes of my life right now, no."

"That's what I thought. And no offence taken." She paused, nodding slightly towards Celeste, "She's human, though, right?"

I snorted, "Hell yeah, like 200%. But if she wasn't…"

"Daughter of Aphrodite?" she suggested, grinning slightly.

"Totally."

We laughed again and Celeste stormed over, "Well, Rach, I hate to break up the party, but now that you're officially best buds with the biggest social reject in school, can we get going?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course."

"My lady," Yasra added under her breath, which only served to set us off again, and earned me the super bitch-glare from my best friend. (I'm gonna need to stop referring to her as that, It's getting really awkward, what with my distaste for her general character…)

Celeste led us into a courtyard, where about five other students were milling about. In the center was a large tree, with foreign-looking scarves and silks draped over its lowest branches, creating a large, circular tent around the trunk.

"_That's_ where she is. Dodona."

Yasra looked up sharply, "Dodona?"

"Yeah, gotta problem with that?"

"No, of course not." Then in Greek, to me, ""Have you read through that text book Apollo gave you yet?"

"No, why?" I whispered back, "Who's Dodona?"

"She smiled (an I-know-something-you-don't-know smile), "I expect we'll find out."

One girl stumbled out of the tent, with that confused, dazed look that one often had after an altering of the mist. Interesting.

A face poked out of a gap in the curtains, searching. "You." She pointed towards us, "come in." We made to move forward, but the head shook. "Not you, mortal. I want to see the others."

Confused, Celeste fell back, glowering at us as when shrugged and entered the tent.

When we were in, a grin broke out on the girls controlled face. She stuck out a hand, "Lissa Jenson, Oracle of Dodona."

I took her hand, "This is weird. Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Oracle of Delphi. Pleasure."

Yasra shook to, introducing herself hesitantly, "Yasra Oakesfille, daughter of…"

"Yes?" We urged her simultaneously.

She took a deep breath, "Daughter of Artemis."

-----

**And, there we have it. Woot. No offense to Artemis, I promise she's still pure.**

**I'm in school now, so I can't respond to my reviews right now, but I will. So there.**

**Um…R 'n' R. (Rest and Recreation)**

**CLICK THE GREEN BUTTON.**

**-Seiina**


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